Lineage Logistics Holdings, a Novi-based temperature-controlled storage and logistics company, today announced its commitment to a $5 million donation and the launch of a Share A Meal campaign to help provide 100 million meals to people in need in response to COVID-19.
“The COVID-19 virus presents extraordinary challenges for moving, storing, and distributing food on a large scale,” says Greg Lehmkuhl, president and CEO of Lineage. “At Lineage, we’ve built a business dedicated to shepherding food all over the world, which puts us in a unique position to help overcome these challenges. We want to do our part by sharing what we have to offer – including temperature-controlled warehouse space, supply chain logistics expertise and financial resources.”
Lineage is donating $1 million to the Feeding America COVID-19 Response Fund and will donate up to $500,000 more to match contributions made to the fundraiser run by Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, in which all funds are directed to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.
“We’re working in myriad ways to ensure that every person in need, particularly the residents of Oakland, Calif., has access to the food they need during this COVID-19 crisis,” says Chris Helfrich, CEO of the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation. “We’re proud to be doing this work alongside Lineage Logistics – they’ve quickly established themselves as an invaluable partner in these critical times.”
In addition to initial commitments, Lineage is looking to work closely with a number of other strategic partners to make financial and logistical contributions in communities worldwide and reach Share A Meal’s ambitious goal.
Lineage will engage its network of customers, which includes some of the world’s largest food producers and manufacturers, to join Lineage in its commitment, and the company will challenge its investors, vendors, and other likeminded leaders and businesses to donate as well as it works to ensure people around the world have access to the food they need.
Additionally, recognizing that COVID-19 is a worldwide crisis, Lineage has engaged with the Global FoodBanking Network, to provide funds, donate food, and volunteer the company’s storage resources and distribution expertise on a global scale.
“We have the opportunity to rise to the occasion in a critical time of need and actively live out Lineage’s purpose statement of helping to feed the world,” Lehmkuhl says. “It’s a time to ask ourselves what we stand for, and how far we are willing to go in service of others. We are 14,000 strong in communities near and far. As citizens of the world, we are in this together, and we know Lineage can – and must – do more.”
